ABSTRACT
Black men of African heritage are one of the most devalued groups in Western society. Shortly before his untimely death, the world-renowned tennis player Arthur Ashe was interviewed by Charlie Rose on NBC. Rose began by asking Ashe “What was more difficult…being a black man, or having AIDS?” Without a moment of hesitation, Arthur Ashe simply responded “Being a black man, because everyday of my life I have had to face racism as a black man”. This statement, by a powerful, rich African American man, who was dying of a dreaded disease, aptly sets the social content in which black men of African descent must struggle to survive. The negative statistics about black men can be overwhelming. The overrepresentation in prison populations. The underrepresentation in further education. The “significantly” smaller pool of “marriageable” brothers. I could go on. The goal of this chapter is to examine the effectiveness of participatory research as a tool for working with black men for change.
